The “Transformers” movies don’t really exist to highlight humans, but that doesn’t mean the franchise hasn’t managed to create the occasional memorable flesh-and-blood character, especially early on. Shia LaBeouf does a good job as Sam Witwicky, the franchise’s first lead — an everyman loser who becomes a crucial component in the Autobots’ fight to save the world. However, it can be easy to forget that Megan Fox’s Mikaela Banes is far more than a mere one-dimensional romantic interest.
Michael Bay’s “Transformers” initially paints Mikaela as a cookie-cutter popular high school girl, but the story almost immediately starts adding layers to her character and never really stops. Unfortunately, the third movie, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” unceremoniously removes her from the franchise, replacing her with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s Carly Spencer. Of course, the real reason Fox wasn’t in “Dark of the Moon” is the extremely public falling out between her and Bay, whom the actor managed to call a Nazi dictator and a nerd in the very same interview. “He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he’s a nightmare to work for,” Fox told Wonderland in 2009. “But when you get him away from set, and he’s not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he’s so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. And it’s endearing to watch him.”
While it’s understandable that the director felt he had to react after that, the decision to write Mikaela out robbed the franchise of what just might be its greatest human character. With no disrespect to Huntington-Whiteley, Carly is precisely the kind of one-dimensional female lead Mikaela avoids being. Fortunately, there’s a simple fix to all this: the “Transformers” movies should bring Mikaela back.
The Transformers movies are long overdue for a Mikaela renaissance
Paramount Pictures
To put it bluntly, Mikaela is a perfect “Transformers” character. She functions perfectly in the requisite “human screaming and running from giant sentient machines” role when the plot requires, but unlike many other humans in the franchise, she also brings a lot to the table during quieter moments that don’t involve robot punch-ups.
Mikaela is an expert mechanic with a surprisingly tragic backstory, and she proves to be far more independent and capable than you might expect from a female character in a goofy blockbuster. She’s also a genuinely likable person with her own agency and the impressive ability to browbeat high-ranking government agents into submission. Her moments of frustration with Sam never come across as a female character nagging because the script requires a harpy, but as genuine insecurity and exasperation over his refusal to properly communicate and commit. Oh, and she’s by far the cooler action hero of the two, personally beating two separate Decepticons — not giant-sized ones, sure, but nevertheless.
In other words, Mikaela is precisely the kind of human character the “Transformers” franchise needs. As it happens, she’s also the kind of character her actor might need right now as well. Megan Fox’s career was never the same after “Transformers,” as she’s struggled with objectification and typecasting — as well as a lack of great roles. Perhaps a return as Mikaela would work wonders for both her and “Transformers.”
Could Fox return in the Transformers movies?
Jerod Harris/Getty Images
Best of all, Mikaela would be incredibly easy to bring back. In recent years, the “Transformers” timeline has been inching away from the Michael Bay stuff with “Bumblebee,” “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” and “Transformers One.” She’s also been away from the franchise for so long, they could update the character any way they wanted. For instance, Mikaela could pull a Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) from the “Terminator” franchise and become a seasoned action hero. She already kicks tailgate and takes names in “Transformers” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” so it’s not hard to imagine her embracing a more survivalist attitude in a world that’s periodically ravaged by massive robots. The Autobots also recognize her as an ally, so it would take the screenwriters all of 20 seconds to come up with a way to bring her back in fold.
Even if some of Bay’s influence still presided over the franchise, this wouldn’t be a problem since he and Fox seem to have buried the hatchet. Bay told GQ in 2011 that Fox reached out to him and that they’d exchanged pleasantries. “When you’re days and months on a set, it’s like a family. You say rude things and you make up,” he said, summing up the situation. Indeed, Fox’s arguably biggest post-“Transformers” role has been as April O’Neil in the Bay-produced “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.”
Whether Fox actually wants to return as Mikaela is one thing, and there’s no telling if the franchise has any inclination to consider bringing her back. Still, should the stars align, Mikaela’s return could be executed pretty easily, and fans might be happy to see a familiar face from all those years ago.
Read More: https://www.looper.com/1584592/what-happened-to-mikaela-transformers-megan-fox-fix/
